US army gives medical assistance to Iraq school

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

BAGHDAD — According to Defend America, US Department of Defense News website, US soldiers members of the 256th Brigade Combat Team, the 199th Forward Support Battalion (FSB), with several units from Camp Liberty (18th Military Police Brigade, 16th MP Brigade, 617th MP Brigade, 307th Psychological Operations Battalion, and the Iraqi Highway Patrol) provided medical assistance to Iraq children at an elementary school in Bagdah.

US Major Alan Kabakoff, with the 16th MP Brigade, says humanitarian missions are very important in winning the war on terror, although you can't see the importance sometimes: "It's like fire prevention, everyone knows that it works, it's just hard to prove, unless something bad happens. These people want the same things that we do, they want safe schools, safe homes, and safe areas to raise their kids."

Staff Sgt. Jason Escoyne, Co. C, 199th FSB, who examined the children said that there was nothing seriously wrong with them.

This effort is part of the US reconstruction of Iraq. Till now according to USAID, U.S. Agency for International Development, in Iraq 2,405 schools were rehabilitated including the supply of chairs, cabinets, desks, chalkboards and kits for secondary and primary schools, about 8.7 million science and math textbooks have been distributed, 33,000 secondary school teachers have been trainned, high protein biscuits have been distributed to more than 450,000 children and 200,000 nursing and pregnant women, trainning have been provided to 700 physicians and 2,500 primary health care providers, over 3 million children under five have been vaccinated and more than 1.3 million children under five suspected of malnutrition have been examined.

Sources